Join me on my journey to read the 350 physical books on my To Be Read (TBR) List!
A bit of a background
At the end of 2023 I realised that I had a bit of a book-buying problem. I decided to count the amount of unread books on my shelves and I found that I had 350 unread books… I was a bit shocked to say the least.
Turns out that I had become a book-collector as well as a reader. Discovering BookTube and Bookstagram had a massive influence on my book buying habits over the years – there are just SO many great books in existence. When I was younger we found books the old fashioned way: you walk into a library or a bookstore. Sometimes a friend mentions a good book to you and you go and find it. When I was little I was also bound to my mum’s book-buying budget. She would only buy a new book when I finished the ones I owned.
Then I grew up and started earning my own money and had infinite recommendations at my fingertips. Add in online shopping, and you can see how quickly books can stack up. Before I could finish the books I just bought I have already watched 10 new videos full of new book recommendations. There was also a bit of pressure to film and show book-hauls and show off your new shiny treasures as the book-dragon you are.
I also moved abroad where books are comparatively cheaper to where I grew up. I walked into Big W here in Perth and I could buy 10 books in one go without breaking the bank. The libraries here are also amazing and I initially had a fair amount of library hauls and returned heaps of unread books. Quite simply there were just too many books and not enough time.
Then enter the Kindle! It was so easy to read hundreds of ebooks and listen to audiobooks rather than the books I owned. Because I owned them. They are there on my shelf whenever I want to get to them, so why not read library books, ebooks, audiobooks, and keep adding to the beautiful collection of shelves? Eventually book buying became an anxious habit. I would buy a book simply to lift my mood. I was trying to get the same satisfaction that escaping into a great story brought me by just buying the anticipation.
The Side-Effects
Eventually I realised that I was just hurting myself in the long run. I was collecting books that I wasn’t even sure I liked yet or not. You can only know if you love a book after you read it after-all. I had 350 books that I had a 50-50 chance of despising because I had never read their contents. I have always wanted to own only my very favourite books and the collecting habit was breaking that goal.
Moreover, I was actually making myself more anxious in the long run. Every time I added a new book to the shelf it added just a little bit more anxiety of “when will I have time to read it (and the hundreds of others)”.
I was also trying to kick the general retail-therapy habit and facing my feelings that lead me there in the first place. Did I really need a light up flamingo or did I just have a bad day? Did I need to buy ALL the books in a series that I haven’t started yet, just because the box set is cheaper? Probably not.
I finally discovered the concept of reaching TBR Zero on BookTube and found that I was not alone in feeling overwhelmed and essentially drowning in my TBR. So I made the decision to count my TBR and share my journey to TBR Zero online to keep myself more accountable.
The Journey So Far
I am currently 6 months into the challenge and quite happy with the progress. This was my initial post I made on Instagram. You’ll notice that the very first rule was: No buying books I haven’t already read. In the first 6 months I broke this rule quite a lot because I did not set myself up for success.
After I broke that rule a few times I decided to start sharing my journey on YouTube as well. I discovered some more active challenges that people were sharing online and it really motivated me to get back on track myself.
Next I will share a more in depth overview of the first 6 months of the challenge and some of the spreadsheets I have made along the way!
How many books are on your TBR?
xoxo
Binx
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